


The Spy Who Loved Me

by Huntress79



Series: Love Among Spies Series [1]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - James Bond Fusion, M/M, White Collar Reverse Big Bang 2015, art by elrhiarhodan, death of canon characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 08:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3971194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seasoned CIA Agent Peter Burke thought he wasn't built for the big, thrilling adventures, at least not anymore. But then, he has to work with newly-00-minted MI-6 Agent Neal Caffrey to prevent the world from falling prey to a megalomaniac and his henchmen - and in a heartbeat, Peter's whole world, including his view of it, is changed for good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue/Teaser - Skyfall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elrhiarhodan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrhiarhodan/gifts).



> AU. Crossover/Fusion with the James Bond movie franchise. Chapter titles will be the movie titles, and there will be spoilers for and hints at the various Bond movies within the whole story. Written for Round 2 of the White Collar Reverse Big Bang on Livejournal, inspired by the exceptional art prompt made by elrhiarhordan. Beta by theatregirl7299.
> 
> Link to the artwork: http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/530159.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Military/industrial compound somewhere on the French Riviera_

_Night time_

 

„This guy has more guards here than our dear Lizzie in all her houses together.“

Under different circumstances, MI-6 Agent Neal Caffrey would have laughed out loud about the dry comment of his colleague Matthew Keller coming over the earbud.

“Shh! Or do you have a death wish?“

Silence from the other told Neal that that wasn’t the case. The two were sent to infiltrate the compound, belonging to the worldwide operating weapon company of one Garrett Fowler, and get a prototype back to where it belonged – the research department of the British Army. A former technician had stolen it when his plans for “improvements“ were turned down on more than one occasion.

“Ok, change of guards in 15 seconds.“

Keller only grunted a response. The Scotsman wasn’t the most talkative one, and sometimes Neal was more than worried about his violent tendencies, but M and everyone else had told him that killing and other acts of violence were part of the job description. And as long as they got it done, so Neal concluded, he would not worry about it.

From his position on the backside of the main checkpoint, Neal watched Keller approaching the four guards, obviously acting as a happy drunk who had lost his way back to his accommodation. Neal waited until Matthew had the full attention of all four, then he broke into a short sprint, followed by an often practiced leap up the fence. Without turning around (or paying attention to the obvious sounds of fighting coming from Keller’s position, Neal made it to a side entrance in record time. Already waiting for him there was their insider Kate Moreau, undercover agent for both the MI-6 and its French equivalent. She quickly handed him a small technical device.

“It’s on Level 5, in the very last room on the right. This,“ she motioned to the device, “will override any security protocol, but only for a few minutes each.”

Neal nodded. He had huge respect for the young woman, who made this very final stage of the mission possible to start with.

“You know what you have to do now?”

“Yeah.” Kate nodded and turned to the outside of the building. Neal already took the opposite direction, when he heard her call out “Be safe.”

At some point on Neal’s way to Level 5, Matthew told him that Kate was with him now, and that he should hurry up. Surprisingly, Neal encountered less security personnel than expected, but he didn’t give it another thought.

The minute he passed the last door, the one where the prototype was stored, all alarm systems in the building went off. Neal had to cover his ears, while shouts, shots and screams came over his earbud.

“Kate, Kate, Kate. I should have known that you, of all people would turn against me.” A new voice, which Neal knew belonged to Fowler, came over the earbud in a sneer.

Neal punched the wall next to him in a bout of frustration. Fowler apparently had captured her, and if their intel on the ruthless American was correct, he and his associate Ryan Wilkes, a so-called “Lord of War”, a big weapons dealer with short temper, enjoyed torture. A lot.

“I had no choice, Garrett. You were endangering the world’s safety. I couldn’t let that happen. Plain and simple.”

Hidden behind a bookshelf, with the prototype secured in his backpack, Neal couldn’t help but smile about her audacity.

“Matthew, can you hear me?” Neal whispered. “If yes, two coughs.” The cough system was established between the two from a very young age on, almost back when they met for the very first time.

Neal held his breath and waited. Nothing came over the earbud. That left two options: either Keller was captured too and tried to keep Neal safe and undetected, or there was just some malfunction with the earbud and Keller was busy with hatching a plan to get them all out. An inner voice told Neal that there was even a third, but the rational part of his brain, which also was the positive thinking one, shut that thought off immediately.

“And who do we have here?”

“Nobody of importance, you son of a bitch.”

If anyone thought that Fowler was good in putting sneer in his speech, he definitely found a master in Matthew Keller. Despite the dire situation, Neal couldn’t quite keep a small smile spreading across his face upon hearing the Scotman’s trademark.

The next few moments were filled with another round of fighting, shouting and grunting – until a single shot, followed by a scream from Kate, brought all action to a halt. Neal, who had made it out of the room and the hallway to the main staircase in the meantime, stopped dead in his tracks.

“What the hell was that for, Ryan?”

Great, now Wilkes also wanted to play.

“Didn’t you recognize his accent?” A pause, Wilkes seemed to wait for a response from Fowler, but nothing came. “Scottish. Which means that at least the MI-6 is on our heels. And they probably have another here in the building.”

In the meantime, Neal had made it to the room with Kate, Fowler and Wilkes. Sure, the main goal of the mission was to secure the prototype and bring it back to Britain, but Matthew’s obvious death wouldn’t be in vain. Neal, who spotted his colleague in a lifeless heap on the floor, would make sure to get Kate to safety too.

“Didn’t know you were such a clever guy, Wilkes.”

With that, Neal emerged from the shadows, guns drawn and trained on both Fowler’s and Wilkes’ heads. He spared a glance at the still body of Keller, a gunshot wound sitting right in the middle of his chest, before locking his eyes with Kate’s, who still was in Fowler’s grasp. She was calm despite having a gun held to her head and the fact that she just had witnessed a man dying.

“What do you want?”

Wilkes was getting more and more nervous, if the rising octaves in his voice were anything to go by.

“Oh, I already have what I came for.” Neal looked from Fowler to Wilkes, then back to Kate. “But I’m not leaving without her.”

Before any of them could say anything more, the whole building was rocked by the shockwaves of an explosion some levels below them. Only now Neal remembered that they had instructed Kate to put up the first, non-explosive part of the detonation devices at strategic points throughout the whole complex. While he was on his way to the prototype, Neal had made the finishing touches to the “fireworks”, but when they had planned it, they were sure that all three of them would be at a safe distance, not smack right in the middle.

Neal spared a glance at Kate. She still kept her cool, even though her eyes were filling with growing fear. Fowler still had his gun trained on her temple. Yet, in less than the blink of an eye, she used the opportunity of the shockwaves running through the floor to wrestle it out of the man’s grasp and point it at the flummoxed American.

“Caffrey, do your job. Get it back to who it belongs to!”

“What about you?” Neal had trouble to grasp what Kate was suggesting.

“I don’t matter”, she shouted. “At least not as much as that thing.”

Neal wanted to protest, his whole being screamed at him to do it, but yet another explosion, followed by her urgent “Now!” had him running to the exit at full speed, dodging falling debris and rushing scientists in the process.

He barely made it out of the door and down the cliff into the Mediterranean Sea before the whole building was engulfed in a huge fireball. Neal’s ears were ringing when he emerged from the water, watching the inferno above him with unbelieving eyes.

“KATE!”


	2. Chapter 1 - Tomorrow Never Dies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Neal meet for the first time; Peter gets introduced to the mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Neal's apparel in Hughes' office is "borrowed" from a promo pic of Pierce Brosnan for "Tomorrow Never Dies".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia, USA_

_16 months later_

 

“Good morning, Agent Burke!“

“A good morning to you too, Melissa!“

Senior CIA Agent Peter Burke entered the main lobby of the CIA Headquarters, directing a smile at the young receptionist while trying to juggle his briefcase, today’s issue of the Washington Post and a Styrofoam cup of coffee without dropping anything.

“Need a hand, boss?“

Peter didn’t have to turn around to identify this new voice’s owner. Diana Berrigan, his second in command, was already grabbing the newspaper from under his elbow, all the while trying to contain her amusement.

“I don’t know. Is helping your boss before he makes a fool of himself part of the job description they give you in training?“

Even though he tried to sound as serious as possible, both Peter and Diana knew that it was more of a rhetorical question than anything else. After a few seconds of silence between them, Diana was the first one to find her voice again, while they started the way to their team’s office.

“Hughes wants to see you in his office.“

“When?“

“Now.“

They both came to a halt, and Peter handed all his belongings over to Diana. He wanted to add something, but the daughter of two diplomats beat him.

“I know: I’m in charge, we should catch up on paperwork and if Blake is daydreaming again, I’m allowed to douse him with ice water.“

With a nod and a smile, they parted ways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A shy five minutes later, Peter walked through the door into the outer office of CIA Director Reese Hughes. The two men knew each other for quite some time now, and Hughes was both the father figure and the best advisor any young CIA agent could ask for, at least to Peter.

“You’ve grown some roots over there, Peter?“

The soft timbre of Hughes’ personal secretary Elizabeth Mitchell brought Peter back to reality. Ever since Hughes had introduced her to the team leaders, Peter was infatuated with her. Which is why he was quite disappointed when they both realized after a night of talking and drinking wine that they a) were better off as friends and b) had a preference for their own sex.

“Get in there! Who knows, maybe there’s an adventure waiting for you!“

With a slight nudge and a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes, Elizabeth all but pushed Peter through the open door into the spacious inner office, which overlooked the whole CIA building complex.

“Peter, nice of you to join us!“

As usual, sarcasm laced the director’s voice. And right in that moment did Peter notice a third person in the room. A young man, Peter estimated him somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties, was standing at one of the windows, apparently mesmerized by the activities outside.

Reese pulled Peter over to his guest, who was wearing a dress blue uniform, but not that of the US Navy, but the Royal Navy of the UK.

“Peter, may I introduce you to…”

“Caffrey. Neal Caffrey.”

The younger man turned around and extended a hand, but Peter was too busy to take in the sheer beauty of his sky blue eyes to notice at first.

“Burke. Agent Peter Burke”

“Oh, I know who you are. Actually, my boss specifically asked for you to be present.”

Peter looked over at Hughes, who answered with a shrug.

“Mr. Caffrey…”

Neal held up a hand, silencing Peter.

“First things first: It’s either “Agent Caffrey”, “Commander Caffrey” or simply “Neal”. He paused. “ʻMr. Caffrey’ is a ghost that keeps me haunting since I was fourteen.” He took a breath, apparently to calm himself down. When he looked up at Peter, he wore a dazzling, yet fake smile. “You had a question, Agent Burke?”

“Actually, it’s two. One: who are you working for, and two: how can the CIA be of assistance?”

Neal smiled again, but this time the smile seemed more genuine. Peter could hear him murmur “adorable”, before the young Brit brought his focus around to him again.

“MI-6, and for the record, I wasn’t happy about teaming up with the CIA. The MI-6 is good, maybe even better than that, and working with others always adds uncontrollable variables to the equation which can derail any operation, no matter how exactly planned it might be, within a heartbeat.”

Peter and Reese exchanged a look. Apparently, their young guest had had made a bad experience with another international agency, and if Peter was one to place a bet, that event, maybe one including a very personal loss for the man, had happened not too long ago.

“Agent Caffrey, what are we dealing with?”

Neal gave Hughes a grateful look, before handing both men a folder.

“I know, it’s not much to start with, but believe me, we had even less than that on some of our most successful cases back at the MI-6.”

While listening to Neal, Peter’s eyes skimmed the first page, causing his eyebrows to make a detour towards his hairline.

“How on God’s green Earth can Russia lose 150 nuclear warheads without notifying us? Or any country in the Western world to start with? Aren’t they aware that each single one of them might start a new world war?”

Hughes was agitated. If he despised anything, lack of communication and messes, preferably left behind by others, were high on that list.

“Director Hughes, ever since before the golden age of Glasnost and Perestroika, even though the Russian military present a façade of order and power, it’s in complete disarray on the inside. There’s no other military organization in the Western world with that much corruption running through it than in Russia. We know for sure that Moscow doesn’t even know that they are missing so many.” He indicated them to turn the page. “As you can see, the warheads have been stolen all over the country.”

“How many does Russia acknowledge to have been stolen? And is this verified intel?”

To emphasize his second question, Hughes lifted the page and looked at Caffrey.

“Officially, they have “accidently” lost one container with 20 warheads,” Neal replied. “And, yes, the intel is verified.” Seeing the questioning twin looks of Peter and Hughes, Neal added. “Let’s just say that our friends in the NATO don’t have that much faith and confidence in them either.”

“Any idea on who might be behind the thefts?”

“No. But we have our eyes on a man we believe to be a link between the big boss and some of the other players – terrorist organizations, weapons dealers, and such. We hope to get that close to him that he might lead us to his boss.” Neal turned from Hughes to Peter, once again wearing a dazzling smile, edging on a smirk. “Agent Burke, how do you fancy Shanghai in the Spring?”


	3. Chapter 2 - Octopussy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first stage of their mission begins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Shanghai, China_

 

Less than 24 hours after their first meeting, Peter found himself exiting a non-descript private Learjet on an airstrip outside Shanghai. While trying to adjust his body to the mild night temperatures of the Southeast Asian region, he could Neal hear chatting with the flight attendants – in fluent Mandarin. Before their departure, Hughes had handed Peter a file about Neal, but Peter had the nagging feeling at the back of his mind that a lot of vital information was still missing.

“So, Peter, enjoying our trip so far?”

Unnoticed to Peter, Neal had sneaked up at him and put a hand on his shoulder. Officially, they were two wealthy Americans, celebrating Peter’s bachelor party at this exotic location. Right now, they were heading to a stretch-limo, supposedly to take them to their hotel, a five-star palace right in the middle of the city. Before getting into the car, Peter took a closer look at Neal, who was chatting up the driver. If the younger man was an unreadable walking talking mystery back in Washington, he was quite the opposite right now, with his eyes holding the biggest difference. While they had an icy, distancing edge to them in their first meeting, now they were sparkling with fire and joy, reminding Peter of a batch of the purest sapphires he ever had laid his eyes on. Peter got into the car, and while he was relaxing back in the soft leather seats, Peter decided for himself that he would get, somehow, to the bottom of Neal’s “bottle” of mysteries and that he would do everything to get these two blue diamonds sparkling more often. Schooling his features, he turned to the younger Brit.

“Oh, I already do”, he finally answered Neal’s previous question, accompanied by a sweet smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quite an hour later, both men were sitting at the large dinner table of their hotel suite. Both were only in their dressing gowns, and enjoying the welcome gift of the hotel: a four-course meal, consisting of international delicacies and a bottle of champagne.

“Does your daily work always include things like that?”

Neal looked up at Peter, a puzzled expression on his face.

“What do you mean?”

“This”, Peter indicated the table with his fork, “travelling in a private jet, the best hotel suites on location, meals that cost a fortune, champagne, topped with a cappuccino in the clouds.”

Neal put down his cutlery and leaned back in his seat, trying to come up with a fitting answer.

“Yes, it does.” Peter’s slight surprised look told him that he hadn’t expected that answer. “But, and that is a big but, I gladly would give up all of these amenities if….”

A knock on the door, followed by the words “room service” coming from a female voice, saved Neal from finishing his answer. Instead, he got up and opened the door, revealing a young woman with long brown-blond hair.

“Come in.”

“Hi, Neal.” They exchanged a hug. The woman leaned back to take a look at Neal. “God, it’s good to see you again. I was a bit worried about you, after… you know what. Q kept me updated, but I always had the suspicion that he left things out, or that he didn’t know better.”

Peter watched the exchange with a growing curiosity. While Neal’s face was a mask at the table, probably a reaction to Peter’s question, the minute the woman walked in, it lit up like a Christmas tree. And now, almost all lines of worry were erased upon seeing and feeling the concern this woman had for him. Peter couldn’t help but wonder at how young Neal really looked without this unknown weight on his shoulders.

“Alex, may I introduce you to Peter Burke, Agent of the CIA. Peter, my fellow MI-6 Agent Alex Hunter.” Alex and Peter shook hands, while Neal continued with his introduction. “If you need an entrance to the criminal world here in this part of the globe, she’s the best to go to.” He smiled when he saw her blushing slightly. “Don’t sell yourself short, darling, you really are.” He turned to Peter. “It was her quick thinking that saved my hide up in Beijing five years ago.”

“Which resulted in a broken leg and a gunshot wound to the shoulder for me. Believe me, Caffrey,” Alex paused to snatch some grapes from the table, “I could have lived without that.” She looked at the half-finished meals of the men. “Oh, I think you should finish that before it gets cold.”

Both men did as told, and with Alex helping herself to most of the fruit selection, the room was shrouded in almost silence. Neal was the first to finish, and he didn’t waste any time to get to the point.

“So, Alex, what do you know about our target?”

She went over to her bag, which she had left at the door upon entering, and pulled out a tablet computer.

“Avery Phillips. One of the biggest yet youngest business tycoons in the region. Last year, his companies had more net income than most of the Wall Street companies in a decade. Loves to spend his time and his money in various clubs all over the region, in Macao, Taiwan, Singapore and here in Shanghai.” She handed the tablet to Neal, catching his eyes with hers, effectively fixing him in his seat. “And I think he could give you a run for your money in one particular game of chance.” She pointed to the screen, and Peter could see a devilish smile spreading on Neal’s face. Apparently, he was up to something he enjoyed very much.

“Where’s he now?”

“Unfortunately, he left for Djakarta yesterday, something about a very big financial problem at his company there. But before he left, I got word about him organizing a big poker tournament at his own club in Macao.”

“What’s the participation fee?”

“$-50.000, plus you have to qualify in a smaller tournament here in Shanghai.”

Once again, Peter watched the exchange between the two fellow agents with curiosity. Apparently, there was more to the two than meets the eye, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that Alex still had unresolved issues with Neal, which were probably linked to the incident in Beijing that Neal had mentioned earlier. On the other hand, his young British colleague seemed to be unfazed by the money that was necessary for their next step.

“Do you know anything about this tournament here?”

“Yes, it is organized by and takes place in one of the clubs of Lao Shen.” They both saw the puzzled expression on Peter’s face. “Lao Shen is not only one of the biggest club owners around here, with several clubs/casinos making millions of US Dollars worth of business, the Chinese government and Interpol also suspect him of a wealth of criminal activities, ranging from money laundering to drug selling and human trafficking”, Neal offered as an explanation.

“So, how do we get Neal in?”

Alex turned to Peter, a full-bloomed smile gracing her features. Apparently, she already had a plan in the works.

“Well, Agent Burke, I told Lao that I have a friend who might be interested in partaking.”

“And?”

“What, and? Lao is a gambler by heart. He doesn’t care about who the opponents are before he sees them at the table. He says he can read them better than anyone else when they focus on the game. And I have watched him – most of the time, he’s right about them right on.”

“What game are we talking about?”

“This is where it is getting really interesting.” Both men raised their eyebrows, and Alex couldn’t help but chuckle. “Neal, have you ever played Pai Gow?”

“Sounds like a dish at my local Chinese restaurant to me,” Peter muttered before Neal could answer.

“Very enlightening, Agent Burke.” Neal tried his hardest, but he couldn’t quite hide the frustration about the comment coming from the American in the room. “Isn’t that the Asian variation of our poker game, with tiles instead of cards?”

Alex nodded, glad that she didn’t have to teach Neal everything about the game.

“Yes, and while it resembles poker in many aspects, there are some differences as well.”

“Which are which?”

“You will learn that from a good friend of mine, one Ms. Mei-Lin Won.” Alex handed Neal a business card. “She’s already expecting you, well, not exactly you.” Neal raised his eyebrows.

“She’s expecting Nicholas Halden.”

Both Neal and Alex looked at Peter, an expression of surprise on their faces.

“How did you figure that out?”

“Neal, it’s the name the MI-6 used for this suite too.”

“Oh.” Neal had the grace to look slightly ashamed for letting that slip his mind. “I actually didn’t notice.”

Alex used that moment to announce her leaving.

“Well, I gotta go, gotta have to keep up my appearances.” She collected her things, then turned around to Peter, extending a hand. “It was nice to meet you, Agent Burke. You’re quite different to any American agent I have worked with before.”

Peter took the hand, shaking it slightly. “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Hunter. And I hope the difference works in my favor.”

“It certainly does.”

She exchanged a handshake with Neal and headed to the door, when she stopped and turned around, as if she had forgotten to mention something before.

“Oh, and by the way, SHE is waiting for the two of you in Macao. With the money.”

Before either of the two could react, Alex was out of door. Neal uttered a groan of frustration.

“What? Who is SHE?” Peter asked, a slight frustration detectable in his voice as well.

“Sara Ellis, a high-ranked civil servant with the Treasury. I had to work with her before, and she kept watching me so close that I had nightmares afterwards. Call me paranoid, but I can’t help but feel that she’s out to get me.”

“She wants to get into your pants, that’s all.”

“Are you kidding me? How do you know that?”

“I work with women, too. And I have seen my second in command, who is one of the toughest women I’ve ever met, acting the same way on more than one occasion.”

“These guys have all my sympathies.”

“Make that gals.”

Neal’s expression was priceless, and Peter couldn’t help but smile about it.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your expression. You didn’t see that coming, did you?”

“No, not at all.” Now Neal had to chuckle himself. “I thought all American federal organizations had a certain policy about homosexuality.”

“That’s the military. And even they are loosening up these days. The CIA doesn’t care about the sexual preferences of their employees.”

“Well, good to know that.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that day, Neal met with Mei-Lin in her beauty parlor, which was situated in a beautiful park some blocks from the hotel. Peter decided that Neal could handle himself and stayed back at the hotel, intend on reading the file about his British colleague. He was about halfway through it, when his cell phone rang.

“Burke.”

“Hey, boss, how’s Shanghai treating you?”

“Thanks, Diana, it’s not so bad.”

“Not so bad?” she echoed. “Boss, Hughes told us which hotel you and Caffrey are staying at, and wow, if that’s not top of the game, then I don’t know.”

“Yeah, you are right about the hotel, but…”

“What? Is Caffrey giving you a hard time?”, she inquired, with a slight but audible emphasis on “hard”.

“Yes. No.” He took a breath, unsure how to explain it without sounding like an already lovesick puppy in the first place.

“You’re falling for him, right?”

“Am I that easy to read, even across that distance?”

“I know you, Peter, probably better than anyone else here in the whole bureau. I’ve heard you sounding exactly the same before, and I hope that this time, it’s the right one.” She paused, giving Peter the chance to digest her words. “You were there for me whenever I was in love, and I guess it’s high on time to reciprocate that sentiment.”

“Thank you, Diana, I appreciate that, I really do.” They both paused, the static white noise filling the line between Washington and Shanghai. “Could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah, anything. Should I check Caffrey out? I mean, get information about him?”

Even though he was so far away, Peter could easily see Diana blushing about her slip of tongue.

“Yeah, I know you still have connections in the UK. See what you can dig up and send it to me in an encrypted email.”

“Will do, Boss.”

She hung up, and Peter stared at the phone in his hand. How on Earth did he deserve a colleague like her?


	4. Chapter 3 - Casino Royale, Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Neal finish stage 1 of their mission.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Club “White Lotus”_

_Shanghai_

 

When Neal and Peter entered the club that evening, Peter felt slightly out of breath. Apart from him wearing a tuxedo for the first time since his high school prom, the visible opulence of the interior of the club rendered him speechless. It was as if you traveled back in time to a China when it still was an empire. Not only the tables, carpets, or tapestries, but even the glasses and tea cups were in an elaborated design mainly made of a deep red with so much gold that it was almost blinding.

“You okay, Peter?”

The surprisingly soft spoken question brought Peter back to reality, and he turned to look at Neal, who stood beside him, a slight worried look marring his handsome features.

“Yeah, I was just a bit overwhelmed.” He gestured around him to drive the point home. “This something you don’t see every day.”

“Well, get used to it.” Peter shot Neal a questioning look. “Phillips’ club in Macao is at least twice as big and three times that opulent.”

Peter couldn’t believe his ears, and he was sure that his young British colleague was exaggerating now.

“I’m not kidding. MI-6 has been watching Phillips and his cohorts for some time now, and we’re still baffled about his wealth.”

“There must be something crooked about his business.” Now it was Neal’s turn to look puzzled. “From an economical point of view, it’s simply not possible to make that much money and keep your businesses on the straight and narrow.”

Both men turned around, watching the bustling gaming tables beneath them while getting used to their surroundings. Peter wasn’t one of the agents with knowledge in many languages, but even _he_ could detect at least half a dozen English slangs, ranging from British to Canadian to Australian. He heard some French commands, along with some bits in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Above all that, several different Chinese slangs met his ears.

A low chuckle coming from Neal brought Peter back to reality, and he followed Neal’s line of sight to find out what humored his young colleague on this mission that much – but he failed.

“What’s so funny?”

Neal still had a huge smile on his face, indicating that he was still highly amused about something.

“See that guy on the last table on the left?” He pointed down, indicating a middle-aged Chinese man. “He just lost one of his yachts to Lao, without knowing that Lao had played a bluff.”

“You think that’s funny?”

“Funny? No, not really.” Peter’s answer was a raised eyebrow. “But it’s quite amusing nonetheless, especially when he continues to play, even when Lao has left the table.”

They both went back to watching the gaming tables silently – well, Neal at least. Peter divided his attention to both the tables below him and the young man next to him.

“So, what do you think are your chances to beat this Lao at his own game?” he asked, after a while.

Neal turned slightly, his expression a mixture of amusement and something else that Peter couldn’t quite pinpoint at the moment.

“Me winning against Lao?” Neal indicated himself. “Close to zero.” Peter looked at him, obviously a bit shocked about his honesty. “But that’s not the goal here.” Again, Peter’s expression was somewhere between incredulity and shock. “The goal is to get me into the tournament in Macao.”

“But didn’t Alex say that you have to win this game here?”

“No, she didn’t.” Neal paused, waiting for Peter to come up with another protest. When nothing came from the American, he continued. “All that she said was that Lao needs to know about me being interested.”

“And with that she meant this tournament here.”

“Again, no. She meant both of them.” Peter’s expression changed to one of slight confusion. “Lao and Phillips are close buddies. Rumor has it they own all the clubs together, but our intel is quite shady on that topic.”

“Okay, so how do you get to play against him?”

“Promise you let me finish, Peter, okay?” Neal smiled.

“Okay.” Peter flushed at his tone. He knew he should just let Neal explain.

“Alright, so I start at one of the tables, wherever a seat is open. Then I will win some of my games, just to gain a bit of a crowd around me. When I notice Lao watching us, I will lose my next game.”

“On purpose? Isn’t that cheating?” Peter realized he had asked another question. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt you.” He waved a hand for Neal to continue.

“You didn’t. And yes, you might call it “cheating”. I preferably compare it with card counting in a poker game. You have to watch all the tiles and try to figure out which ones your opponent has. If I think at some point that I have the upper hand, I will lose, as you said it, on purpose, hopefully gaining Lao’s interest in me.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

“Then we better hightail out of here as fast as we can.” He smiled, but Peter couldn’t see it reaching his eyes. “Alex is waiting in a car outside.”

Without waiting for an answer from Peter, Neal made his way down to the gaming area, whispering something to the cashier.

“Don’t worry about him.”

The sudden appearance of an unknown female voice startled Peter. He looked to his right where a beautiful Asian woman dressed in a golden dress mirrored his pose.

“How do you know that?”

“I watched you watching Nick descending into the gaming area.” She paused, turned to the side and looked Peter straight in the eye. “Mei-Lin Won, Interpol”, she said as a way of introduction while extending a hand.

“Interpol?” Peter stage-whispered back, when all of a sudden her name rang a bell in his mind. “You’re Nick’s teacher in Pai Gow?”

“Yes, I am. He’s a fast learner, and he definitely knows his way around the gaming tables. Nick didn’t say anything, but I bet he’s one hell of a poker player.”

“He told me about his strategy.”

“You’re still not convinced it will work out, are you?”

Peter only nodded and turned his gaze away from her back to Neal, right on time to see him making his first win.

“See? He’s getting the hang of it.” Mei-Lin tapped him slightly on the shoulder. “What do you say? Shall we go down and watch him?”

Peter offered her his arm. “I would say “Let’s go.”.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out of the corner of his eye, Neal noticed that Mei-Lin apparently had made contact with Peter, and that they were now on his level. The game in front of him was going to work out in his favor, and once again, he sent a thank you to Matthew Keller for teaching him all kinds of poker. Without that knowledge, he already would be screwed. His opponent dropped out, nodding to him as a way of thanking him for the game. The next guy took the seat, and the circle began anew.

Several rounds later, Neal had gathered not only quite a crowd of spectators around their table, he also had a lot of money spread out in front of him. Once again, he knew with one glance that he had the higher tiles of the two of them, and in this moment, he decided that it was time for Nick Halden to drop out.

“I’m out.” He pointed to the chips in front of him. “I better cash out before Lady Luck turns her back on me.”

“What a shame, Mr. Halden.”

Neal didn’t have to turn to recognize the voice. Lao Shen was unknowingly following their plan.

“Yes it is, but I know better than to tempt fate.” He turned around slightly, looking at Shen. “Don’t you agree, Mr. Shen?”

“Of course.” Lao motioned to one of the cashiers to take Neal’s chips to the bank counter and turn them into real money, then he turned around to Neal. “What do you say, Mr. Halden? While we are waiting for my employees to cash you out, would you like to play a game against me?”

“What’s at stake?”

“I know from a common friend that you would be interested in a tournament in Macao.” Neal only nodded. “If you win, you have that starting place, and I might even pay your starting fee.”

“And if I lose?”

“Then you better wish you never came into my club in the first place.”

It was said in a business-like tone, but Neal knew what Shen really was suggesting. And that caused him to shudder on the inside.

“Alright, then let’s play.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From their place at the bar, Peter and Mei-Lin watched the interaction, both with a mix of anticipation and worry and ready to run if the need should arise.

“What is he doing now?” Peter asked.

“His job. But I don’t think that he really anticipated that move from Shen," Mei-Lin answered while keeping an eye on Neal's table.

“Which move?”

“He told Nick that he has to win to get into the Macao tournament.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I know. I mean, Nick is good, but I’ve never seen someone winning against Shen.”

“We have to break the game up.”

“No!” To emphasize it, she put a hand on Peter’s chest. “Unless you want to get him killed, and the whole mission thwarted.”

Peter had to agree, knowing that that definitely wasn’t the goal their bosses had in mind when they teamed them up in the first place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Surprisingly enough (not only for him, but also for Shen, if his expression was anything to go by), Neal managed to get a good start into the game, winning turn after turn. Slowly, he felt a headache creeping up on him, but he was determined to win this game – he just didn’t know how to reach that goal.

“You play better than I assumed.”

“Really? My numerous wins didn’t sell the deal for you?”

“No.” The pause caused Neal to look up. “They were weak opponents.”

“And yet they play.”

“Yes.” Shen chuckled, slightly surprised that the young man had looked through one of his tricks. “Very good, Mr. Halden, you’re the first one to recognize them for what they really are.”

“They are here to keep the whales playing – and losing money to you.”

“Exactly.”

The dealer, sitting right in the middle between Neal and Shen, handed them the next set of tiles. And Neal knew exactly that minute how to win that game. He just got handed the highest set of tiles possible in Pai Gow, and there was no way that Shen could beat it. A look across the table told him that Shen wasn’t happy about the tiles he got handed.

“You okay, Shen?”

“Yes, I am. It’s just the set of tiles that worries me.”

“Aww, that’s too bad.” Both men made their last stake.

“And why is that so?”

“Because I’m very happy about my set of tiles.” And with that, Neal spread the tiles in front of him, causing Lao to jump up from his seat and start yelling at the dealer. Neal couldn’t help but watch the scene with slight amusement – but only until Shen visibly cooled down and turned to him.

“Mr. Halden, it was a pleasure to play with you. It doesn’t happen every day that I lose at my own game.”

“Well, if it’s some condolence, it happens to the best of us.”

“If you say so. My assistant will hand you the official invitation for the tournament in Macao when you pick up your winnings at the bank counter.”

Before Neal could say anything else, Shen vanished in the crowd, probably heading to his office to lick his wounds. Losing no time, he motioned to Peter to meet him outside, and went over to the bank counter where the cashier handed him a silver briefcase and an envelope.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Neal exited the club shortly after, Alex pulled up in the car, with Peter already sitting in the back.

“Alex, get us out of here. Please, sugar.”

She didn’t have to be asked twice. Alex stepped on the pedal, causing her tires to squeal and making both Peter and Neal cling to the handles above the backseat doors.

“You’ve spent some time with Lucas, right?”

“Yeah, I did. What gave me away?”

“I don’t know, maybe your fast driving.” He turned to Peter, who looked a bit pale. “Lucas is a motor racer, and her on-off boyfriend.” Neal turned back to Alex. “Slow down, Alex. I think we’re far away enough from the club. And I think Peter needs a bit of fresh air.”

She pulled over, and the car hadn’t even stopped fully when both men stumbled out of the doors, taking deep breaths to calm down their nerves.

“You okay, Peter?”

“Ask me that again in a few minutes, will you?”

Both men started to laugh, realizing the silliness of their conversation.

“You played very well back in there.”

Neal tipped an imaginary hat to Peter. “Thank you, sir, but I just had all the luck. Especially in the last game.”

“Yeah, Mei-Lin told me that no one ever managed to beat Shen at that game.”

“Well, as the saying goes – there’s a first time for everything.”

With that, both men got back into the car, and this time, Alex drove away at a slower speed, taking both men back to their hotel.


	5. Chapter 4 - For Your Eyes Only

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter does something that spells trouble for him - and maybe the whole mission, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning came way too soon for both men. Upon returning to the hotel last night, Neal stashed the money in the hidden safe of his bedroom, while Peter couldn’t get out of his tuxedo and into the shower fast enough. Neal did the same in his own bathroom, and then they met in the living room to debrief the events of the evening. When they finally fell into their beds, it was way past three o’clock in the morning.

Peter was the first to wake up, if only for the sounds coming from his notebook, which was happily chirping away at the small table. He got out of bed, sat down in front of the computer and saw that someone had sent him an email.

Clicking on it, he saw that it was from Diana, and that it had several files attached. Apparently, his young colleague had some luck with her recent fishing trip.

The small note in the email read: “Boss, I have something for you, but unfortunately not as much as you would like to have. They keep their ranks closed.”

Peter was expecting something like that. Which was quite understandable, after all, the CIA had a similar position about handing out information about their agents.

In the meantime, the download of the attachments was finished, and Peter closed his email program, then went to open the first document.

As it turned out, it was some basic information about Neal. Most of that was already in the file Peter got from Hughes, but there were some new information like Neal’s parents died in an obscure accident when the boy was 14 years old, causing him to spend several years in an orphanage.

“Morning, Peter. You’re busy already?”

Peter quickly closed the notebook, not wanting to have Neal discover him spying on him.

“Ah, not really, just checking in with home.”

“They can survive without you?”

“Well, they manage somehow.” They both chuckled. “No, to be honest, they do a fantastic job, no matter if I’m with them or not. Diana is one hell of a substitute as a boss, or so I have heard.”

“Guess she had a good example to learn from.”

“Maybe. But maybe it’s because she’s been trained on that from young age on.” Neal furrowed his brows, not quite catching on what Peter was talking about. “She’s the only daughter of two diplomats, and she and her brothers were raised all over the globe when they were kids.”

“Wow. Must be worth some stories, having a childhood like that.”

“Yeah, but Diana keeps a tight lip about it. I’ve worked side by side with her for the last almost six years, and what I told you is all I got out of her.”

Neal sat down in the second chair with a soft sigh while rubbing the back of his neck, causing Peter to do a quick visual evaluation of the Brit.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just have some kinks. In my neck. Happens every time I have to wear that damned tux.” Peter looked slightly confused. “My whole body adopts a stiffer posture whenever I wear it. Combine it with a rush of adrenaline, caused by both the game and Alex’s driving, and you get this,” Neal made a gesture to his neck, “as a result.”

Peter was quite surprised to hear Neal swear. Apparently the younger man was in that much pain that it let him forget his usual manners.

Without thinking long about it, Peter got up and went behind Neal, pulling slightly at the collar of his dressing gown.

“What are you doing?”

“Just trying to help you out.”

“By strangling me?”

“No, silly, by giving you a massage.”

“Oh.” A poignant pause, apparently Neal was thinking. Hard. “Sorry. Didn’t get much rest last night, as you know.”

“Believe me, me too. But that’s the downside of our job. Long evenings and short nights.”

“It could be worse.” They both said it at the same time, causing them both to chuckle.

“Go ahead, Peter. Show me the magic of your hands.”

To drive his point home, Neal looked up at him. Peter went to work, and for the next few minutes, the only sound in the whole suite were Neal’s soft sighs and groans of pleasure – sounds Peter could hear for forever and caused him to close his own eyes.

“Stop, Peter!”

Peter did as told, though he didn’t know what he had done wrong. Neal slipped out from under his hands and began to pace.

“Did I hurt you?” He was concerned he’d injured the other man.

“No, not physically at least.” Neal’s voice was short.

“Then what?”

“I find it difficult to enjoy myself when I know you’ve been spying on me.”

Neal walked over and reopened Peter’s laptop. That’s when he knew he was screwed.

“I know that M sent a file about me to your boss, and that he gave a copy of that to you.” Neal got up from the table. “Do you do some digging about everyone you work with? Or just about those you don’t trust?”

“I do trust you, Neal…”

“Then why are you digging around in my past? This all is under lock and key for a reason.”

“What reason?”

“What reason?” Neal echoed. “How about I don’t want to discuss my private life with everyone in the first place? Or maybe I don’t want to be scrutinized and ruled out for just being me.”

Despite the close quarters they were in, Peter had to strain his ears to hear the last part of the sentence, caused by Neal’s voice breaking due to the emotions warring inside of him. The younger man sat back down, and one look at his whole posture told Peter that a) he had stepped over a line and b) that just mentioning his past made Neal looking older and more tired than he really was.

“Neal, I’m sorry, but I…”

“What, Peter? What makes you turn to such means, instead of asking me right away? You would have got your answers, maybe not right away, but at some point you would have got them.”

For the first time since his discovery, Neal turned his blue eyes directly at Peter and the mixture of anger, disappointment, raw pain and sadness Peter saw in them floored him. What has happened to Neal to haunt him for such a long time?

“What do you want to know?” Neal asked, the anger in his voice replaced by some kind of tiredness.

“Honestly?” Peter questioned back.

Neal nodded.

“Everything.”

The younger man looked quite puzzled, his tired brain not quite catching up at this hour. “Neal, from the minute I met you in Hughes’ office, you were a walking talking mystery to me. Yeah, that’s pretty much part of the job, but I sense there is so much more to you than a job like ours requires. And I just want to get to know the real you, not just the spy persona.”

“Why?”

“What do you think why?”

“I don’t know. Peter, if I would know, I wouldn’t ask, don’t you think?”

Peter took a deep breath, it was now or never.

“Because… I’m falling for you.”

“Come again?”

“I’m falling in love with you.” The secret was out, and for once in his life, Peter was unsure about what was happening next – and what this confession would mean for their mission. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t paid attention to Neal.

The younger man had closed his eyes upon hearing Peter’s “confession”. It wasn’t happening; it couldn’t, not to him. Not to someone who deemed himself a doomed soul.

“Neal, you’re okay?”

“No, not at all.” He swallowed. “Peter, you have no idea what you just did to me.”

“Enlighten me.”

“You can’t fall in love me. Everybody who got close to me died not long after that. And that series has started back when I was a kid.”

“When your parents died.”

“Yeah. I came to live with my mother’s sister, Ellen, for a while, but six months after my parents died, I was back at the cemetery, this time laying Ellen to rest after she was shot in a shop robbery.”

“She owned the shop?”

For the first time since this all had started, Neal laughed, though it was a hollow, mechanic laugh.

“No, she was a cop, and she tried to stop the robbers. Everyone told me at the funeral that she died a hero, but that’s not exactly solace for a fourteen-year-old who just lost everything he had in under a year.”

“No it isn’t.” Both men went silent, and right that moment room service brought their breakfast in. They went over to the dining table, and began to split up the treats on the trolley.

“Then I came into the system, which landed me in an orphanage north of Windsor. Looking back at it now, it was a pretty good time for me. Sure, it wasn’t the same as it was with my parents, of course, but I made some friends in there.”

“You still have contact with them?”

“I even worked with two of them at some time; one of them is still with the MI-6.”

“And the other one?”

“Was the next addition on my death list.”

They ate for some moments in silence, giving both of them the time to think about what just had been revealed.

“You really think you’re responsible for all their deaths?”

“Yeah, most of them anyway.” Neal took a sip of his coffee before continuing. “My parents wouldn’t have been on the road if I wouldn’t have kept pestering them about getting me a special birthday gift. Ellen died because she swapped the shifts with a colleague, so she would be able to pick me up from school. My friend of almost fifteen years died because I had to play the knight in shining armor during a mission.”

“Did you save them?”

“No, I barely managed to save myself.”

“Tell me more about it.”

“Not now. Peter, some shrinks consider talking about your past as therapeutic, but to be honest, I’m just tired. My heart aches, my head hurts, and I’m feeling older than you are right this moment. As I said, you’ll get your answers, but please let me decide how much I tell you in one going, okay?”

“Okay.”

Neal got up and was heading over to his bedroom. 

“Neal!” Peter called, causing Neal to turn around. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to cause you pain.”

“Well, you did, Peter, and you can’t take it back. Live with it.”

With that, Neal closed the door to his bedroom, leaving a slightly stunned CIA Senior Agent at the dining table.


	6. Chapter 5 - The Living Daylights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission continues in Macao.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, the two men were back up in the air, this time with Macao as the destination. After their morning argument, Neal kept the communication to a minimum, to Peter a clear sign that the younger man was licking his wounds and putting up a shield to protect himself. For that alone, the seasoned CIA agent could have kicked himself over and over again.

They were about halfway to Macao when Peter saw Neal getting up from his seat, a file in his hand and sitting down opposite him.

“Neal…”

The younger man looked up at him through his glasses, causing Peter’s breath to hitch – how on God’s green Earth was it possible to look hotter with every new “look”?

“Agent Burke, I suggest we focus on the mission.” Neal’s voice was void of emotions but Peter could detect that the Brit was using every ounce of willpower to rein himself in.

“Maybe you’re right, but just know that I’m deeply sorry about the way I approached the topic.” He paused, trying to read both the face and the sky blue eyes of his partner. “I should have come to you and asked you the questions instead of going behind your back and trying get the answers by snooping around. Again, I’m so, so sorry that this American hardhead”, Peter gestured to his forehead to emphasize the words, “sometimes only knows one way, and that he doesn’t care about other people’s feelings.”

Neal didn’t say a word, gave no verbal sign of either acknowledging or declining Peter’s apology. Instead, he put the file he was holding on the small table between them and pushed it over to the CIA operative.

“We’re in. Phillips has accepted ʻNick Halden’ at his poker table.”

“What’s in the file?”

“Have a look.” Peter did as told, and if the sky-rising eyebrows were anything to go by, he was surprised at the list of names on top of the file. “You got to be kidding.”

“Unfortunately not, and according to our intel, he’s very friendly with both Phillips and his American friend Daniel Reed.”

“You think that they run some wonky business in the States too?”

“I don’t think anything.” Peter shot Neal a puzzled look. Neal continued. “You told me in Shen’s club that no businessman can have that much success without one or two shady alleys. MI-6 did some digging, and that’s what they uncovered.”

“We need to inform…”

“…the IRS. Consider it done. My boss is talking with your boss at the moment, and they will have a plan up and working in no time.”

“Your boss is that good?”

For the first time since the morning, Peter saw a smile flickering up in Neal’s face. And while part of him wished that he was somewhat more involved in the reason behind that smile, he took it in stride that it was cause of the mentioning of Neal’s boss.

“Let’s just say that the old adage of women being the better diplomats fits her to a T, although she only goes by the letter M.”

“So what’s the plan? About the tournament?”

“Well, first goal is to get both you and Sara into the club as well. I can claim Sara as my walking talking lucky charm, and maybe by the time we land in Macao, there will be a valid alias waiting for you too.”

“You’re willing to work with Ellis? If I remember correctly, you weren’t that enthusiastic about her when Alex told us about her in Shanghai.”

Neal couldn’t help but utter a groan. “Well, I don’t see any alternatives, so…” He drifted off, leaving his last words open-ended. “And on the other hand, I hope that with her being present, the part of me that wants to take any risk, especially with gambling, won’t be as dominant as it can be.”

“When this mission is over, you have to tell me more about it.”

“We’ll see, Peter, we’ll see.”

“What’s the plan for me? Do we know each other?”

“Yeah, in one way or another. If Q doesn’t stray too far away from his methods, your new alias will probably be some wealthy American or Canadian economist, a banker or anything like that, with technically no qualms about morals, neither in business nor in play.”

“So I will be at the table too?”

“No. The other slots are already taken. But you will be in the background, and if the need should arise, you have to rile me up.”

“Rile you up?”

“Yeah, make some comments about my approach of the game, or insult me about losing a business deal recently. Anything you can think of.” Neal winked at Peter, causing the other man to blush slightly. “Don’t worry, I won’t take any offence.”

Peter turned the file around, pointing to the second name on the list, the one who surprised him the most.

“What about him? What if he recognizes me and endangers our mission?”

“I hope he won’t be at the club, as your boss is probably working with his boss to get him to the States immediately, but if that doesn’t work, we’ll whip something up on the fly.”

Neal leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes, and subsequently ending the conversation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the flight went by in almost utter silence, only interrupted by the occasional sounds of Peter’s notebook. As it turned out, Neal had fallen asleep, since Peter had to wake him up as soon as they had landed in Macao.

Different to Shanghai, Neal had asked for a sports car as a means of transportation, and when the two men exited the plane, Peter almost took a stumble upon seeing a vintage Aston Martin sitting right outside the hangar.

“You okay, Peter?”

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, but you and your kind definitely know how to work in style.”

“Oh, you mean the car?” Peter nodded. “That’s not exactly from the MI-6.” They both put their luggage into the back of the car and got in. “On one of my first solo missions, I happened to save the lives of both the wife and daughter of the Greek ambassador in Mumbai. Today, he’s not only working as an ambassador in Bahrain, but also as an informant for us. And whenever I’m in need of a more unique car in this part of the world, I’m allowed to let him know.”

“And he knows where to get it?”

“He doesn’t have to.” Once again, Peter’s answer only consisted of a pair of raised eyebrows. “He has the biggest collection of vintage cars I’ve ever seen in my life. Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Bugatti, Mercedes – you name it, and 9 out of 10 times, you can be sure he has at least one standing in his garage.”

In the meantime, they had arrived at their hotel, and after checking in, Neal was handed a thin brief case, which he accepted, and which Peter held responsible (at least partly) for the shark-like smile gracing his face.

They went over to the elevators, and once they were in, Peter turned to Neal.

“What got you so smiling?” He indicated the small brief case. “It has something to do with that, right?”

“Right, and as soon as we are in our suite, I’ll let you in into its secrets.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five minutes later, and for the second time since the beginning of their mission, Peter was rendered somewhat speechless about their accommodation. Like in Shanghai, their suite was in the top category, overlooking the ever-growing city of Macao.

“Bet the good old CIA doesn’t come up with accommodations like that.” Neal’s voice, appearing seemingly out of nowhere on Peter’s left, had a mix of superiority and humor to it, mostly due to Peter’s childlike joy and astonishment about the hotel.

“No, and I would win every bet that they wouldn’t do for the next 100 years or so.” He turned around, watching his young colleague setting the brief case up at the coffee table.

“You’re not exactly a very positive thinking guy, are you?” Once again, Neal wore his glasses, and once again, Peter felt his knees weaken upon the sight. What was it with him and people wearing glasses? Neal wasn’t exactly the first one to cause that reaction in him. His math teacher in high school, one Miss Brenda Anderson, was the starting point, and since then, the combination of wavy brown hair, striking blue eyes and glasses was a safe bet to get Peter fully distracted from everything else.

“You okay there, Peter?”

“Yes, I am, I just got distracted. What makes you think I’m not the positive type?”

“You had your doubts about me playing in Shanghai, and you obviously can’t stop to pointing out what I consider “normal” in my, or better, our line of work.” Peter’s expression turned to one of shock; he didn’t know that he obviously had hurt the younger man with his words more than Neal had let on. “Not to mention your sniffing around in my past.”

“Neal, I told you I’m sorry.” Neal looked up, and his eyes conveyed the message that he didn’t believe Peter, not a single word. “Ok, at least for me digging into your past. And if I remember correctly, I already apologized for that.” He sat down on the single chair. “And I’m sorry if you feel “attacked” when I’m more or less just commenting the differences between our agencies.” Neal looked up again, and this time, Peter could read a bit of forgiveness in his eyes. “But tell me, why do you consider it “normal” for your work?”

“Think about it.” Peter didn’t answer. “Okay, from time to time, I have to put my own life at risk for the sake of the mission. So I think it’s only fair that my agency makes sure that I have access to all amenities during a mission.” Peter’s expression was slightly confused. “The life of a spy is, in most cases, a short one. I was lucky so far to get out of my missions alive, but who knows what comes tomorrow.”

For the next few seconds, the room was in silence, with both men letting Neal’s words sink in. And Peter’s brain delivered some mean kicks to his conscience for everything he had done wrong on this mission so far.

“Wanna know what’s in the case?” Neal’s voice was back to its normal sound, and Peter felt somewhat thankful for that.

“Yeah, and I even more wanna know why it made you smile like a shark downstairs.”

“Like a shark?” Neal echoed, with an audible mix of humor and incredulity to his voice.

“Yeah, like a shark. You might not know it, but when I was a kid, there was this commercial on TV. I can’t really remember what it was about, but it had an animated shark in it. And at the end of the commercial, the shark would come up close to the screen and smile right into the camera.”

“And I really reminded you of that?” Peter nodded. “Wow, Agent Burke, our in-house shrink would have a field day with you just about that.”

“Okay, then make sure I never cross paths with her or him.”

“Oh, that’s something I have mastered already.” He opened the clasps of the case, but didn’t open the case itself. “Before I open it, you should know that almost every MI-6 agent on active duty would smile the same way as I did if he or she would get a case like this.”

“Why?”

“Because that is our version of a Care package, Q-style.” With that, he opened the case and turned it over to Peter to see the contents. The American could see several passports, technical equipment, and if he was correct, a hidden handgun compartment beneath it. “Like what you see?”

“Definitely. So, what are you going to do with it?”

“Not me, us, Peter. Remember, we work this mission together.” Neal got up and over to the small wardrobe next to the entrance, where he suddenly came up with a second brief case, similar to the one already on the table. “Here, this one’s for you.”

“How… I mean… When…?”

“That’s all it takes to render you speechless? Good to know, might be helpful at some point.” Neal all but chuckled about his American partner. Of all the agents he worked with so far, this one definitely was one of a kind. “But to clear your mind – you were so busy with absorbing the whole atmosphere of the room that you didn’t notice the hotel clerk handing me yours.” He took a deep breath, then cast a slightly worried look at Peter. “Tsk, tsk, tsk, Agent Burke, you should know better that every single detail can be essential for the success of a mission.”

“Oh, I do, Mr. Perfect Spy, I do.” Both men laughed, and Peter was glad to detect some strains of a full belly laugh in the Brit’s voice. “So, back to them, take me on a tour.” He indicated the cases. “You seem to know them better than I do.”

“Alright.” Neal put them next to another, and for the next few minutes, he described every single item in them in great detail, starting from the passports to the fake credit cards to the newest issue of a Walther PPK stashed in the hidden compartment. And right in that compartment, Peter found something that was only in his brief case. A small, rectangular device that somehow looked like a mobile defibrillator.

“What’s that? And why is it only in my case, but not in yours?”

“That, Peter”, Neal took it out, “is a defibrillator.” Peter couldn’t help but looked shocked about it. “Two years ago, MI-6 already had an agent working his way up in Phillips’ organization. He was that”, he indicated a small distance with his thumb and index finger, “close to get into the innermost circle, when he turned up dead in an alley in Colombo. Cause of death – Heart attack, caused by an overdose of an unknown poison.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I feel sorry for him, but how would a defibrillator come in handy when you’re poisoned?”

“One of the first things that happen when you’re poisoned, with a lethal dose nonetheless, is that your heart goes into cardiac arrest…”

“…and that’s where the defibrillator could save a life.”

“Exactly.” Neal had dissembled it in the meantime. “If the worst case should happen, you have to get me to the Aston Martin. No hospital, just the car. Then you stick this to the cigarette lighter”, he held up the small end of the device, “and put these two on my chest.” Once again, he held up the appropriate parts, this time, two small, rectangular plates. “Within a short time, he should be charged enough to give me jolt or two, hopefully get me back to life.”

“And if I fail? If I can’t revive you in time?”

“Then you have to get me to the “H.R.S. Devonshire” as soon as possible. As far as I know, Sara knows about that too, and she can help you. The medical staff there is prepared for a case like that, but I hope and pray that we don’t need them in the first place.”

Peter was about to say something more, when a knock at the door interrupted them. The door opened, and a tall redhead walked in, causing Peter to shoot a look at Neal about her audacity, which Neal answered with holding up his own keycard and mouthing _“either that, or one of the hotel clerks”_.

“Hello, Neal.” She looked from Caffrey to Peter. “And you must be our colleague with the CIA. Sara Ellis, Treasury. Nice to meet you.”

Peter and she shook hands, and in that moment, he totally could understand why Neal wasn’t happy about working with her. She might be an efficient worker, but he couldn’t help but feel himself bristle about the commanding undercurrent in her voice.

“So, what where you boys talking about?” She sat down at the couch, stashing both her purse and the thick black brief case close to her.

“Just our next steps in the mission”, Neal answered, but he didn’t even bother to keep his emotions from his voice.

“Neal, I know you’re not happy about working with me again, but you better talk about that with your boss rather than take it out on me.”

“I was thinking the same”, Peter added – something he regretted within a heartbeat when Neal directed a glare full of pure venom at him. “Okay, okay, Neal, calm down.” He looked from Neal to Sara and back to the younger man. “Can both of you play nice for the time being?” With some trepidation, both nodded. “Good, then I suggest we focus on tonight and get you”, he pointed at Neal, “through the tournament in one piece.”


	7. Chapter 6 - Casino Royale, Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission takes a nasty turn for both Peter and Neal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After discussing their strategy for quite some time, Neal, Peter and Sara went to get prepared for the evening. There was still some unchartered water between Neal and Sara, but Peter had managed to get them both up to a level where he wouldn’t have to worry about them botching the mission.

“Now I know why M wanted you on board with us,” Neal said from the doorway to his bedroom, while trying to close the cuffs on his dinner shirt.

“Cause I keep the two of you from strangling each other in public?” Both of them chuckled, but Neal sobered up quickly.

“Something along that line.” He finally managed to close the cuff and let out a deep breath. “Listen, Peter, I must appear like a very rebellious child to you, especially with how I work with women, but you should know that I have the highest respect for them. All of them, Ellis included.”

“Really? What has really happened between the two of you?”

“Let’s just say she couldn’t take the truth very well.”

“The truth about what?” Neal didn’t answer. “About your feelings for her? Or about your feelings regarding women in general?” Neal still didn’t say a word, and that was answer enough for Peter. “You’re gay, right?”

For the first time in a long time, the old urge to run and run and run came back to life in Neal, and so he just left Peter standing in the “living room” of their suite and all but ran into his bedroom, closing the door and locking the world out in a heartbeat. He couldn’t tell Peter the truth about him. There were only a handful of people who accepted him for being gay, but even most of his colleagues back at the MI-6 had only a thin veil over their true feelings about that topic. Without noticing at first, Neal had made his way into his bathroom and turned on the water on the sink. Only when the first drops of water landed on his face, his brain caught up with reality and he splashed some more on.

In the meantime, Peter still was rooted to the spot in the living room, his gaze trained on the bedroom door. What the heck just happened? Why on Earth did Neal all but revert back to a shy teenager just because he, Peter, assumed that he was gay? And what had happened in Neal’s past to cause such a strong reaction? Peter couldn’t help but get more and more worried about his young colleague with every little thing he discovered about him. Apparently, Neal’s brazen and cool attitude was just that – an attitude, a mask, barely held in place just by some thin threads. With that thought on the front of his mind, Peter went over to his own bedroom to get ready for the evening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty minutes later, both men emerged from their rooms, once again dressed to the nines in their tuxes. If either Neal or Peter was still worried or troubled by the recent events, none of them showed it. Peter knew already that Neal was a master in wearing masks, but that was a game two could play as well.

“Ready to rumble, Agent Burke?”

“As ready as I’m gonna be, Agent Caffrey.”

They left the suite and were met by Sara at the bank of elevators. Like the two men, Sara was dressed to the nines, wearing a deep purple evening gown with matching shoes and a golden purse, where she not only kept her most loyal companion (a baton), but also the mobile defibrillator.

“Nice necklace, Ms. Ellis.”

“Thank you, Agent Burke.” She touched the intricate knot. “It was kind of a farewell gift from a friend.”

“And this friend doesn’t go by the name of Bryan McKenzie, does he?” Neal asked with the slightest edge of annoyance to his voice.

“And what if that was the case, Agent Caffrey?”

Neal turned around, fixing Sara in the corner with his eyes. “If it was that case, I would say he’s an idiot.”

“An idiot?” Sara echoed. Even after knowing this MI-6 operative for the majority of the last three years, she couldn’t quite understand half of his personality.

“Yes, an idiot.” Sara wanted to ask more, but Neal stopped her with a hand. “For letting you go. Or better, for leaving you behind. You might be surprised about that now, but to be honest, I admire a strong, independent streak in women.” Both Sara’s and Peter’s eyes went wide, both of them taken by surprise by Neal’s honesty. “And from what I can tell, Bryan wasn’t such a bad guy.”

“Really, Caffrey?” She looked from Neal to Peter. “Burke, has he taken anything?”

“No, he hasn’t.” Neal answered. And even though both pairs of eyes dared him to explain more, he simply shrugged. “I don’t need to explain a sudden turn in my behavior.” He threw a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the world outside. “There’s bigger fish to fry tonight. I suggest we focus on them.” He turned around, facing the door and effectively ending the conversation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More than two hours later, “Nick Halden” had made quite some progress in the preliminary games, all the time under the watchful eyes of Sara, Peter and Avery Phillips. As far as Peter had gathered, the young tycoon didn’t partake in the games himself, but he apparently had his own players.

“Peter, the big game is about to start.”

Peter turned around to Sara, who indicated the big table in the middle of the club. Neal had already taken a seat at the table and was now waiting for the other players to join him.

“You’re happy with Nick playing so far?”

Sara chuckled, instantly knowing what Peter really was referring to.

“Yes, Mr. Fairweather, he’s playing as I have expected him to. A good balance between risk and talent, but I’m afraid that this will change as soon as the final game will start.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Nick wants to win, no matter the price he or someone else has to pay for it. And he definitely won’t care if he pisses anyone else off or not.”

“That’s your opinion of him?” Peter couldn’t believe his ears. Sure, he only had seen Neal at Shen’s club, but that was a far cry from the picture Sara was painting.

“Yeah.” Apparently, she only just noticed the look of incredulity on Peter’s face. “And that has nothing to do with anything that might or might not have happened between us. Let’s face it, Peter: Nick’s a loose cannon, and in most of his endeavours so far he only left rubble, death and destruction in his wake. And I’m not even a bit surprised that the big boss refuses to assign him a new, constant partner.”

“You know more about him than I do.”

“Yes, and while I’m not at liberty to tell you any details, I’ll give you a hint: Don’t get too close to him, otherwise your demise will come sooner than you wanted it to.”

Without waiting for Peter to answer, Sara made her way over to the small bar at the far wall of the room, picking up drinks for Neal and herself. But when she arrived at Neal’s place at the table, one of the waiters put a similar drink in front of Neal, stating that this was Mr. Phillips’ way of wishing all participants the best of luck.

Peter and Sara exchanged a look, and like herself, the CIA agent wasn’t happy about this turn of events. But before any of them could react, Neal took a sip of the drink, then lifted the glass to toast over to Phillips, who had decided to enter the game and returned the toast with his own drink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The game started, and Neal had almost immediately a suspicion creeping up his spine. He knew something was about to happen, but he couldn’t put a finger on it for his life. What he could rule out was that someone was manipulating the game – that was already a given. Keller had taken him to enough shady clubs and back-room poker tables to have him recognize some tell-tale signs, like the sudden change of the dealer, or the blocking of some seats by Phillips’ men. The whole club probably was involved at some point to make sure that the right guy would win – and that wasn’t Nick Halden. Nonetheless, Neal enjoyed the game, the whole evening so far, even though he could feel the tension between Sara and Peter from afar.

“You okay, Mr. Halden?”

Neal “returned” to reality, even though he had seen and heard everything that was going on at the table.

“Yeah, I was just a little bit distracted.” He pointed over to where Sara was standing, playing her part as Nick’s lucky charm to a T.

“Oh, I would be distracted too.” Phillips sent an apparently sweet smile over the table, though Neal could detect the shark behind it easily. “But let’s focus on the game, okay?”

“Yeah, so I can get back to her sooner.”

Neal hadn’t even finished the sentence when he realized what was wrong. In a heartbeat, his vision started to swim, and a cold sweat was covering his whole body. Knowing that he had to get out of the club quick, he just put down his cards, mumbled an excuse to the other players and hurried out to the parking space – where he collapsed mid-way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the second time this evening, Sara and Peter exchanged a worried look when they saw Neal hurrying out of the room. Since she was closer to him, Sara ran out of the room, only to see Neal collapse on the end of the stairway. Thankfully, they had made sure that their car was parked close by, and so she began to pull the unconscious man over to the Aston Martin.

Peter followed a short time later, but the second he stepped on the top step, a gun was held to his temple.

“I’m sorry, Agent Burke, but I can’t let you do that,” the man with the gun stated matter-of-factly.

“Do what?”

“Saving a killer.”

And with that, the man next to Peter trained his gun over to where Sara was struggling with Neal’s body, aiming at the woman’s head.

“Sara! Duck!” was all that Peter got out before his own world went black. The man fired a shot, but that was blocked by the sudden appearance of a black SUV right in front of Sara.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Neal came back to the world of the living, he noticed at first that he was back in their hotel suite, lying on the small couch in the living room – and that Sara was dabbing a wet cloth over his forehead.

“Hey, Ellis.”

“Neal, thank God you’re awake. We were this close”, she showed him a small distance between her thumb and index finger, “from hauling you over to the Devonshire.”

“We? Where’s Peter?”

“That’s a good question, Caffrey.”

Upon hearing that voice, Neal sat up – an action he was regretting immediately, since a mix of vertigo, queasiness and pain was taking a hold on his body.

“Alex?” The woman in question came closer and so became clearer for his still swimming vision. “What the heck are you doing here in Macao?”

“M had a suspicion, and since she and her American counterpart didn’t manage to get one particular guy back to the States, she ordered me to follow you here.”

“Good thing you did”, Sara added. She turned to Neal, but threw a thumb over her shoulder at Alex. “If not for her, I would be dead by now.”

“Okay, ladies, tell me what has happened. From the beginning.” Neal saw the puzzled expressions and couldn’t quite suppress a chuckle. “Not from the very beginning, but somewhere around the start of the big game, my memory is getting a bit fuzzy.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I remember taking a seat at the table, and that Phillips gave all the players a drink, his way of wishing us luck. Guess I shouldn’t have taken a sip of it, right?”

“Yeah, absolutely, but when do you follow your instincts?”

“I do follow them, Alex, I’m not that bad.”

“Yeah? Well, I beg to differ.”

“Hey, stop it, both of you!” Sara got up, positioning herself between Neal and Alex. They still had a job to do, and now, the life of a fellow agent was probably on the line, too.

“Okay, okay, Sara, you’re right.” Neal knew when to cease fire, and he honestly was way too tired as to argue with either Alex or Sara, or both of them. “What happened after the drink?”

“You suddenly got up from the table, hurried out to the car, but you only made it down the stairs before you collapsed. I followed you, and I knew Peter was somewhere behind me. I began to pull you over to the Aston Martin, when I suddenly heard Peter scream that I should duck, and that was when I saw men with guns surrounding him, with one of them aiming at my head,” Sara recounted the events, her voice filled with emotion.

“That’s where I came into the picture.” Alex said, not without some pride in her voice.

“Let me guess: you “borrowed” the first big car you saw on the deck, right?”

“Yeah, I actually did, and lucky for all of us it was a bulletproof SUV, big enough to protect us from the flying bullets.”

“Have you seen the guy who tried to shoot Sara?” Alex didn’t say a word, which in turn made Neal’s stomach twist in an ugly way. “Come on, Alex, it can’t be that bad.”

“But it is, Neal, it’s even worse.”

“Who is it, Alex? We need to find Peter, and I honestly don’t care who has kidnapped him. I only care about how I can spring Peter free.” He saw the looks on both women’s faces. “And if have to kill my best friend for that, well, so be it.”

“What about the man you consider your second father?”

“Vincent?!?” Neal sat back at the couch. Of all people, he never ever would have guessed that. “Why would Vincent do that?”

“Vincent? Who the hell is Vincent? And how is he linked to you, Neal?”

“Sara, it would be better if you sit down.” She did as told, her gaze never leaving Neal’s. “Vincent Adler was the head of the orphanage where I ended up after the most horrible year of my life.”

“After the accident that killed your parents, right?”

“Yes, but I only landed there after my aunt Ellen was killed on duty. When I got there, I was a terrified 14-year-old boy with no will to live and no perspective. As I learned later on, this orphanage was “boot camp” for future MI-6 agents for some decades. And so I became one myself, joining MI-6 after all that training together with Mozzie and Matthew Keller.”

“But why would Adler attack Peter, actually kidnap him, if he was somewhat linked to your past?”

“Honestly, Sara, I have no idea.” Neal let his gaze sweep out of the room, into the dark of the night, before he turned back to Alex. “Does M know about that turn of events?”

“Yeah, I already told her about it, and she and Mozzie are digging up everything they can find on Adler, including his favorite places.”

For some seconds, the room was silent, except for the air conditioning unit. Neal finally managed to open the cuffs on his shirt and some of the buttons, and for the first time since waking up, his chest didn’t feel constricted, well, at least not physically.

“Okay, there’s another aspect we have to take into calculation," Neal suddenly said.

“Which is?” Sara questioned.

“You mean Philip Kramer, right?” Alex answered.

“Who is he?” Again, Sara asked either of the two MI-6 agents.

“On the official side, he’s the head of the Art Crimes Division with the FBI in Washington. But as the MI-6 has dug up, he apparently runs some businesses with both Avery Phillips and his partner back in the States, Daniel Reed,” Neal explained.

“And he’s here in Macao. MI-6 and CIA tried to get the FBI to order him back to the USA, but they apparently had no success,” Alex added.

“Yeah, but we will deal with Kramer if the need arises. We need to focus on getting Peter back. Everything else is secondary, okay? Alex, get the jet ready to take off,” Neal ordered. Alex nodded, heading over to her bag and retrieving her cell phone. “Sara, you better get back to London…”

“Why? Because it could get ugly?” Neal nodded. “Well, here’s an update for you, Neal. I don’t mind getting dirty. I’m with you, no matter what has happened between us in the past. I realize you have feelings that go far deeper than friendship for Peter, and I know how that feels.”

“Thank you, Sara.” Before he could add anything, Sara was out of the room heading over to her own room to pack her belongings. After watching Alex for a few moments, Neal also started to pack. They had a mission to fulfill, and he had to lead a rescue for a part of his heart.


	8. Chapter 7 - You Only Live Twice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neal, Sara and Alex start the rescue mission for Peter, who gets to know his kidnappers and their reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name of the island where Peter is held hostage is borrowed from the TV show "Arrow". But while I included the meaning of the name as well, the visual description is taken from the movie "Skyfall", in detail from the island where Silva has his hideout.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Military compound, Lian Yu_

_North China Sea_

_Six hours later_

 

“Rise and shine, Burkey.”

And even though approximately 96 percent of his body was strongly for disobeying the order, Peter’s eyes opened on their volition. What they saw first was a big, empty, warehouse-like room, the walls and windows visibly weathered over the years. Despite the pain in his neck, Peter turned his head, in the direction from where the order had come. A man, a bit smaller in height than Neal, came into view, and even though Peter had no name to him so far, he instinctively knew that this man was on the same revenge mission as the man who kidnapped him in Macao.

“I see you’re awake.”

Peter’s head whipped around, his gaze sweeping over to the staircase, where the man from Macao was standing.

“What do you want from me?” he rasped, his voice hoarse.

But the man apparently chose to ignore Peter.

“Do you know what the locals of the surrounding islands call this place?” The man near the staircase tapped with his foot on the ground for emphasis. “They call it ʻPurgatory Islandʻ.” He paused, looked out of one of the not so broken windows, and Peter couldn’t quite shake the feeling that this guy was a first-class lunatic with a knack for big words. “At first, they tried to have industry here, but pretty soon they turned it into a prison island. But even that went pear-shaped when the prisoners turned on their guards, with no one surviving the incident.” He finally came over to where Peter was sitting, and even though he was quite a bit shorter than Peter, he had some kind of looming, threatening about him. “And I plan to add both you and Neal to this list.”

“So I am just bait for Neal, right?”

“Yes, you are. But before that, Mr. Keller over there,” the man in front of Peter gestured over to the man standing next to the chair, “and I will have some fun with both of you. Then Mr. Keller will kill you in front of Neal, and when he’s finally broken enough to beg for death, I will put a bullet into his brain. Which is way easier than what he did to her.” The man’s voice took on a slight sad edge, his mind replaying memories of Kate.

“Who is her? And why are you doing this?”

“Argh, I hate these American spies. They always talk way too much, and nothing actually makes sense.”

“Calm down”, the man in front of Peter said to the other. “Give him the chance to talk, he will shut up soon enough.”

They both laughed, and Peter felt cold sweat trickling down his spine. Apparently he was smack right in the middle of a living nightmare, with no chance of escape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the meantime, Neal, Alex and Sara were on board of the “Devonshire”, standing in the conference room, next to the captain and the Commanding Officer. On two of the monitors hanging from the ceiling, the worried faces of CIA Director Reese Hughes and MI-6 director June Ellington aka “M” looked down on the five.

“Neal? Are you okay?”

“Physically yes, M. Mentally, not so much.” Neal saw both directors opening their mouths to fire more questions at him, but he stopped them with a hand. “But I can, no, I have to focus for Agent Burke’s sake.”

“Any idea where he might be? Or who might be responsible for his kidnapping?”

Ever since he became a spy, Neal had a talent for detecting even the slightest emotion in a voice. And if his gut wasn’t wrong for a change, Reese Hughes was having a hard time reining in his emotions and keeping up a professional façade.

“As to your first question, Director Hughes: no, but we’ve already got a list of possible hideouts for the suspect, which are being checked out as we speak. And your second question: the man we hold responsible for the turn of events in Macao is a British citizen by the name of Vincent Adler”, Neal had to take a breath, “who was the head of the orphanage I grew up after the death of practically my whole family.”

“But why would he kidnap Agent Burke, if he’s linked to your past? How does my agent fit in this?”

“Honestly, Director Hughes, I have no idea, but if I had to take a guess, I would say that Agent Burke only serves one purpose – to lure me into a trap, wherever that may be.”

“And what would this Adler have against you?”

“Again, I have no idea, but I guess that, even though he was like a second father to me in all my years at the orphanage, I never got to know the “real” Vincent Adler.”

“You’re definitely right about that, mon frêre”, a second voice came from June’s monitor.

“What do you got, Q?” They all saw a short, bespectacled man sitting down next to M, and despite the situation, Neal was glad to see and hear his long-time friend, his surrogate brother, and he gave the man a small smile.

“Well, did you know that he was of German descent?” Neal shook his head. Sure, the name might have been an indicator for that, but the Second World War wasn’t the only reason for people leaving their country and go to another. “His mother remarried, this time a British industry tycoon, and that’s where all his money comes from. His stepfather made him the sole heir to everything.”

“Q, any hideouts around here?” Though Neal wanted to know more about Adler’s personal history, they were on a mission and time was of essence.

“Yeah, though it took us some time to find the link to him.” He shuffled some papers, and Neal could see from the corner of his eye that both Alex and Sara had a small smile on their faces. That was Mozzie’s hidden talent – giving everybody a reason to smile, no matter how bad a situation could be.

“There’s an old industrial/prison complex on an island in the North China Sea that one of his “enterprises” purchased only five months ago.”

“And this island doesn’t have a name, does it?”

“Yes, it has a name. Lian Yu.”

Both Neal and Alex sucked in a breath, causing Sara and the CO to look from one to another and back to the two spies.

“You know the name, don’t you?” Sara asked, her voice small and laced with fear.

“Yes, I do.” Neal looked over to where Alex was standing, her expression mirroring his. “In fact, we both do.” He steadied himself against the table, an attempt to keep himself grounded. “Before the incident in Beijing, Alex and I were on another mission, which ended with both of us captured and brought to this particular island. The warden of the prison there had all intentions to torture the two of us to death, but when we arrived there, we landed right in the middle of a full-blown riot.”

“The locals call it “Purgatory Island”, and I can understand that sentiment”, Alex added. “I don’t know how, but it seemed to me that there was something in the air that stripped anyone there of all his or her humanity before turning the body into a literal war machine. Before Neal and I managed to command a helicopter, I saw men younger than I was then, killing each other with their bare hands, ripping bodies apart.” She rolled up her right sleeve, revealing a long, faded scar running over her elbow. “This is a constant reminder of how close we came to dying there. And don’t get me started on the nightmares I still have from time to time.”

“You too?” Neal was surprised to hear that coming from her. He still had nights where his dreams took him back to the few hours they had to spend there, but he was sure he was the only one.

“Yeah, thankfully not very often, but these images come back in quite a pattern.”

For several moments, the room was silent, everyone taking in the story Neal and Alex just had shared with them. It was June who found her voice at first.

“Neal, dear, you sure you can lead the mission?”

Neal turned around to fully face the elderly woman he considered a surrogate mother. “Yes, M, I’m dead sure.” He nodded for emphasis, trying to convince not only June, but Hughes and himself too. “If the tables were turned, Peter would do the same.”

“How can you be so sure, Caffrey? You never have worked with Burke before.”

Neal bit his tongue. Did Hughes really have so less trust in his own agent? Or was he just testing Neal?

“No, I haven’t, Director Hughes. But in the few days we have so far, Agent Burke never gave me reason not to trust him with my life. I just want to give that back to him.”

Hughes seemed to be pleased with Neal’s answer, since no further question came from the American.

“So, Agent Caffrey, what’s the plan?” the CO spoke up.

“Well, we need to get to Lian Yu as quick as possible.” He turned back to Mozzie and June. “Q, try and get me plans of the island. M, please clear the road for him if the need should arise. I don’t care and don’t wanna know what the two of you have to do, just do it.” He got a double nod from his colleagues, and while June got up and went over to her desk, Mozzie stayed for a few moments longer on the monitor.

“Neal, I hate to break it to you, but we found out something more.”

“What is it, Q?”

“I think we have the reason why he’s doing it now. Take a look at the calendar.” Neal did as told – and gasped. It had slipped his mind that tomorrow would mark the 16th monthly “anniversary” of the fateful mission in France.

“And how he’s linked to that?”

“Kate was his niece.”

“He had no siblings, well, as far as you and I know.”

“We’re still working on that, but while you were recuperating in Cape Verde, he got permission granted to dig up her body from the site.”

With that, both monitors went black, and while Alex and Sara went back to their quarters, Neal stayed back in the room, trying to get his bearings after these minutes of revelations on all accounts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on Lian Yu, Adler left Peter and Keller, and once again, Peter had a bad feeling about this man. He had no idea what Neal had done (well, he was sure it was somehow linked to a woman), but he definitely had an idea or two about this could end for him. If Neal and the MI-6 couldn’t come up with a miracle, he was going to die, most likely at the hands of the second mystery man in the room, Keller.

“What’s the fuel for your vendetta against Neal?”

Keller looked up from his perch on a stash of wooden rubbish, obviously surprised that Peter dared to talk to him.

“Doesn’t matter.” He made the common sign of money, rubbing his thumb against his index finger. Peter’s glare told him that the American wasn’t satisfied with the answer. “Well, if you insist on knowing – Caffrey left me back on a mission, left me to die.” He gestured to the right side of his face. “You should have seen that after I got out of the rubble.”

“Let me guess: He, the other man, paid for your recovery, and you’re paying him back by killing Neal.”

“Yeah, something like that. Watch out, Burke, or I might start to like you.”

With that, Keller turned around, picking up the knife he had lying next to him and pulled out an apple, cutting the fruit up in thin slices. Peter felt cold sweat trickling down his back upon seeing it, knowing somehow deep down in his gut that the apple was “testing ground” for Keller – and that he was the real thing where this knife would do the damage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The “Devonshire” made quite some progress since they got the coordinates to Lian Yu, and Neal decided to get back to his own quarter to get some sleep before the rescue would start. Only he couldn’t find peaceful slumber. Dreams, of both his childhood in the orphanage and the fateful mission, kept haunting him, causing him to twist and turn on the small bed in a seemingly endless circle.

“Neal! Neal, wake up!”

Without really knowing what he was doing, Neal grabbed the hand that had landed on his arm, spun out of the bed and pinned the “attacker” to the floor.

“Neal, stop it! You’re hurting me! STOP!”

Only the very last word brought Neal back to reality. Horror and guilt began to rise within him when he realized that he had pinned Sara to the ground. As fast as he could, he got up, sitting back on the furthest corner of the bed.

Sara also got up, and while the better part of her right arm hurt like hell, she wasn’t going to hold it against Neal. After all the bad news they gotten this afternoon, she was definitely not surprised about his reaction. If anything, she would have preferred that somebody else would have gotten the brunt of it.

“You okay, Sara?”

“Yeah, well, I’m not lying when I’m saying it hurts quite a bit, but I know that you didn’t attack me on purpose. I just happened to be there when your subconscious decided to attack whoever starred in your nightmares at the moment.”

Despite feeling the lowest of low in this moment, Neal had to chuckle about Sara’s explanation. Sure, they had their differences, but her way with words was for a long time the only positive side of her for him.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No.” They locked gazes and something in her eyes made Neal almost break. “Maybe later, but first of all, we’re gonna get you to the infirmary.” Sara wanted to protest, but this attempt was shut down immediately by Neal, who seemed to have slipped back in the “part” of the emotional untouchable superspy that made him so successful. “I would never forgive myself if I would cause pain to a woman.”

“Well, if you insist”, she gestured to the open door with her left hand, “lead the way.”

Fortunately, Neal hadn’t hurt Sara that badly. The CMO told her that she would feel pain in the arm for some days, but since it was just bruised, the doctor wasn’t worried about her making a full recovery.

When she was allowed to leave the infirmary, Neal was nowhere to be seen. Sara made her way to the bridge, to the conference room, and back to his quarter, but he still was very elusive. She was about to go back to the bridge when she ran into Alex.

“Hey, Alex. Have you seen Neal?”

“Yeah, he’s on deck, and from what I have seen, his mind is running a mile a minute.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve seen him like that before. Believe it or not, but the “real” Neal is a way more complex character as his cool, collected external mask let one believe.”

Before Sara could say anything more, Alex was gone, probably back to her cabin. So she was left to find Neal, hopefully in the same place as the MI-6 agent had told her.

“Oh, lucky me” – that thought went through her mind when Neal was exactly where Alex had said. And she couldn’t help but marvel at the accuracy the other woman had described him. He seemed to stare out on the water, but if you looked more closely, you could detest a kind of a faraway look in his eyes.

“Neal?”

This time, Sara kept her distance. One attack a day was more than enough for her liking, thank you very much.

He turned around, and Sara uttered a gasp. In all the time they had worked together in the past, she never ever had seen his emotions so open on his face as right now.

“What did the doctor say?”

“It’s just bruised, so I should be fine in a couple of days.” Neal exhaled visibly, and to Sara, it seemed as if an invisible weight was lifted from his shoulders. “But if I remember correctly, you owe me an explanation.”

“Yes, I do, even though I have no idea where to start.” He finally turned fully in her direction. “You have heard the part about me in the orphanage.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. “Well, the orphanage was a boot camp for future MI-6 agents. And once you were deemed to be fit for the program, your life took yet another 180 turn. Sure, we still went to school, but different than other children our age, we all were immersed in intensive training the rest of the day. By the time I turned 18, I was a walking, talking war machine.”

“What did Q mean with “look at the calendar”? Does today have a special meaning to you? Or to Adler? And who is Kate?”

Before answering, Neal took a deep breath, and that action alone made Sara wishing she hadn’t asked the last questions.

“16 months ago, my MI-6 partner Matthew Keller and I were in the South of France, trying to get a stolen prototype back from a ruthless arms manufacturer. To get the two of us in, MI-6 worked together with the French Secret Service, and Kate was our informant on the inside. She worked for Fowler, and on that night, she helped me get into the building and to the room where the prototype was stashed. While I was there, she and Keller were captured; Keller was shot shortly afterwards, I made it back to where they were held. Fowler had a gun to her head, and his partner in crime trained his on me, despite me training mine on both of their heads.”

“But something happened that caused Adler to go to such measures, right?”

“Yes. In one of the steps leading to our “visit”, Kate left little devices all through the compound. When I went through, I finished them with explosive material. So far, so good. But they went off too soon, and instead of watching the whole compound going up in flames from afar, we all were caught in the middle. Before I could do anything else, Kate had wrestled the gun out of Fowler’s grasp and told me to hit the road.”

“She asked you to leave her behind?”

“Yeah, and I quote, ʻI don’t matter. Not as much as that thing.’ Those were her words exactly.”

For several moments, the two were silent. While Neal was trying to get his emotions under control, Sara tried to comprehend the whole story.

“Commander Caffrey. Ms. Ellis.”

None of them had seen the seaman approaching them, and so they both were startled when he spoke.

“Yeah?”

“The CO wants to see you, Commander Caffrey. We will reach our destination in the near future, and he wants to go over the plan once again.” Neal left, eager to finally be able to do something for Peter. “Ms. Ellis, there’s a phone call waiting for you on the bridge. M wants to talk to you.”

“Thank you, Seaman. Tell the captain I’ll be there in a few.”

“Very well.”

With that, the seaman left her, and Sara gave one last look to the horizon (or whatever direction Lian Yu was at the moment) before following him back into the ship.


	9. Chapter 8 - Live And Let Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission ends in a complete success - well, at least for the good guys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Lian Yu_

For the first time since the beginning of this mission, Peter Burke was bored. Really bored. He already had lost track of time, and so it seemed to him that he was bound to this chair for ages. The rational part of him knew that it couldn’t be, but that part couldn’t come up with solid proof either.

“Agent Burke, are you a betting man?”

Even though he only knew this voice for a short time, he hated it. There was something about Adler’s voice, though he still had no name to it, that made the short hairs in his neck rise.

“What if I am?”

“Well, I would bet you that the ship that just has turned up on my radar is one of the Royal Marine, meaning that Neal and his MI-6 puppets have followed the trail I put out for them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I left some bread crumbs, little bits of information, for them to find. And like a good fetching dog they come.”

Adler turned to leave the room again, only to be stopped by Peter.

“Hey!” The man turned back to face the American. “One way or another, you will die. If not by Neal’s hand, then it will be by mine.”

“Oh, you’re threatening me? That’s somewhat cute. But as far as I can see, you’re bound to this chair, with no way of escaping, and Neal will step into my trap, plain and simple.”

“Don’t underestimate him.” Adler shot him a curious glance. “Neal’s a strong man, especially on the mental side. And that’s why I believe in him to top you in your own game.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the “Devonshire”, a group of soldiers, the two MI-6 agents and Sara finished their preparations. Neal wasn’t exactly happy about having Sara with them, but she countered that she knew very well how to handle a gun and that she owed it to Peter to be part of his rescue mission. All dressed in black, skin-tight suits, the group made its way down into the belly of the ship, where one of the most secret possessions of the British military was waiting – a modified U-boat, covered in a special paint that made it invisible for every radar. When Q had presented it (they had retrieved the plans from the servers of an enemy and modified it), Neal could see the excitement on his friend from afar. Now it was time to test it in a real-life situation.

While the “Devonshire” seemed to have stopped on open water, several miles away from the coast of Lian Yu, the stealth U-boat approached the island and dispersed her passengers in a small lagoon. The soldiers made short work of both the cameras and the first guards they ran into. Neal and Alex turned the other way, trying to get into the compound through a side entry they saw on their mobile.

The two agents made their way through the compound, killing everyone who crossed their path. After what seemed to be a small eternity, they made it to the main building, where Alex switched the display on her mobile to one with an added “camera” for body heat.

“And?” Neal asked.

“I count three signatures, two of them are moving. One is stationary, I assume that’s Burke.”

“But he’s alive, right?”

“Yeah, and judging by the color, he’s not badly harmed.” She looked up to Neal. “You were right. He used him as bait.”

With that, Alex began to climb up to the roof of the building, using the height as a surprise element for her entry. Neal on the other hand entered the building through the small door, his gun in the steady grip of his hands, ready to shoot anyone getting between him and Peter. He finally reached the big room, and he let out a breath as soon as he saw Peter.

“Nice of you, Caffrey, to join us.”

Neal was taken aback. That couldn’t be the voice…? Or could it be?

“Matthew??”

“As they say, in the flesh.” Keller finally turned in Neal’s direction. “And please put that toy gun away.” He squinted, as if he was trying to recognize Neal’s gun. “MI-6 is still handing these out? Walther PPK, right?”

Neal stayed hidden in the shadows, not ready to give the multitude of his emotions running over his face away yet.

“Yeah, but they modify it if you want.” In truth, Mozzie had made most of his modifications, and Neal still didn’t know half of them. But Keller needn’t to know either of that.

“Neal, I would suggest you do as Matthew told you.” Adler cut into their conversation.

“And if I don’t?” Neal shot back.

“Well, then I have to kill your American friend here.” Again, Adler’s voice was matter-of-factly.

“Friend? You’ve got to be kidding me. You wanna know why I’m here?” Neal made a pause, sending a silent plea to Peter to understand his next words as a decoy, not as his personal opinion. “I’m here because his boss ordered my boss to make me do it. If it was up to me, I couldn’t care less about what you do to him. He was a nuisance, a weight on my leg that wouldn’t go away.” Again, Neal paused. “And he has no idea of how to play any game of chance.” Finally, Neal stepped out of the shadows, his gun hidden behind his back. “Go on, Vincent, kill him if you want. But I’m telling you that a) it wouldn’t bring Kate back and b) you will not feel better afterwards.”

“How do you know that? You are the one who killed her in the first place!” Adler all but shouted back.

“I didn’t do anything.” Neal looked over to Keller. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”

“What, Neal? What should Matthew have told me?”

“That Kate was working for both the MI-6 and the French Secret Service at that time, and her job as Fowler’s secretary was just a cover. She made the mission even possible, and more important, she made the decision to stay behind on her own.”

“You’re lying! That’s what you always do! You’re conning and lying your way around!”

Step by step, Adler was beginning to lose his mind, and Neal had to think fast if he wanted to get Peter out of here in one piece. Out of the corner of his eye, Neal saw Alex getting in position, her sharpshooter rifle trained on Keller.

“Vincent, look at me!” The man did as told. “I never lie. I might twist the truth to my liking, but I never ever have told a straight lie to anyone. Not to my parents, not to you, not to my boss.” Adler made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh. “Kate told me, after she wrestled the gun from Fowler, and I quote ’I’m not important. Not as much as this thing.ʻ I didn’t want to leave her behind, but with the explosive devices detonating throughout the building, I had to make a decision.”

“You could have grabbed her!”

“No, I couldn’t do that. I barely made it out of the building myself, and as much as my heart and mind were screaming, I couldn’t put her life over the mission. You worked for the MI-6 yourself, you know how they work.”

Adler seemed to consider Neal’s final words, since he trained the gun away from Peter.

“Yeah, I should know”, Adler said, and before any of them could fully comprehend the sound of dejection in his voice, he shot himself in the head, collapsing down on the floor in a lifeless heap. Alex took Keller out the same second, and Neal made quick work of Peter’s ties.

“You okay, Burke?”

“Yes, I am now.” Peter stood up, shaking the numbness out of his legs. “Good show, Commander.”

“You know that I didn’t mean a word I was saying about you, right?”

“Yeah, I do.” And before any of them could say anything, they were hugging each other, clinging to the other like to a lifeline.

“You two are okay?”

Alex had made her way back to the floor, and when Neal and Peter turned to her, she had a smile on her face.

“Yeah, Alex, we are.”

“In more than one way, Agent Hunter.”

“Good, then I would suggest we ditch this place for some better quarters.”

They made as much as three steps when Sara and two of the soldiers came into the room.

“Peter! You’re okay?”

“Yeah, I am. But I could eat a horse right now, so to speak.”

“Don’t worry, we get you back to the ship and to some food in no time,” Neal said.

“Yeah, but you have to see that before, Commander.” One of the soldiers motioned his head to the outside, and the three of them followed him over to a marginally smaller building, where some more soldiers were waiting.

“What do you got?” Neal inquired.

“I think these are the weapons you and the MI-6 are looking for.”

In front of them, nicely stashed in rows, were all the stolen nuclear warheads, the very reason for Caffrey and Burke to meet in the first place.


	10. Epilogue - Nobody Does It Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neal and Peter enjoy some down time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: The boys get more than a bit frisky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Cape Verde_

_Three weeks after the events of Lian Yu_

 

For the first time in a long time, Neal Caffrey felt free. Completely free – free of his past, of all the burdens life had put on him so far, free from the demons that were haunting him in his years of existence. And while he tried to put some responsibility on himself and his ability to overcome such things, the very reason for all that to happen now was lounging next to him.

Literally in a heartbeat, CIA Agent Peter Burke had turned Neal’s whole life completely around. And for the first time, Neal could believe that someone like him, a killer for his country, could have a second chance on love.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

Without him noticing, Peter had left his seat next to Neal and made his way over to the bar, where he prepared another drink for both of them. Right now, the best thing in Neal’s life so far was standing behind him, looking down on Neal with a broad smile on his face.

“Aw, nothing of importance. Just going over my life, I guess.”

Peter leaned down, put the drinks on the small table, and gave a light kiss on Neal’s nose, causing the younger man to chuckle.

“You’re thinking too much.” Neal raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, I have a thing for smart people, especially when they are as gorgeous as you are, but I don’t have one for people who overthink everything.”

“I don’t do that.”

Peter made his way to stand in front of Neal.

“Oh yes, you do. And now you need a bit of a distraction.”

With that, Peter pulled Neal up from his seat and, before the younger man had even the slightest chance to react, into the infinity pool that was part of their hideout. They fooled around in the water for some time, until Neal changed his tactics and pulled Peter close to him.

“Immobilizing me? Nice tactic, Commander Caffrey.”

“Well, Agent Burke, I’ll have you know that I learned that from the best.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and I plan to show you every single move he taught me.”

“Then don’t force yourself, Commander.”

Neal was more than willing to follow this command. In one swift move, he had Peter pinned to one wall of the pool with his body, while his hands started to roam the broad expense of the other man’s shoulders and chest.

“Neal”, Peter said in a voice that sounded to Neal like a plea, “don’t be such a tease.”

“Oh, I’m just getting started.” Neal winked at Peter. “Let’s see how long it takes to make you spill all your secrets.”

“You think you’re that good, huh?” Neal’s hands were doing their magic on his body, and Peter was close to losing his ability to think straight, let alone talk.

“Mhm.” In the same moment, Neal let one of his hands slip into Peter’s bathing shorts, causing the man to gasp. But Neal was relentless and didn’t give him a chance to catch a breath. In a heartbeat, the Brit had a steady rhythm in moving his hand up and down Peter’s cock, bringing him closer and closer to the edge.

“Neal, don’t even think about stopping now!”

“But that’s what I’m doing.” Before Peter could answer, Neal had pulled his hand away from Peter and was over at the exit, where he sat himself lazily on the top step. Like a moth was flying towards a flame, Peter swam over to Neal, mesmerized by the dark blue his eyes had taken on.

“Come up here.”

Peter did, and in no time, both men were naked, rubbing their hard and aching members together. Neal lay back on the towel, a sign for Peter that he was ready to take it to the next level.

“You’re sure, Neal?”

“Yes, I am.” He locked his gaze with Peter, losing himself in the chocolate brown of the other man’s eyes. “Make love to me, Peter.”

And that’s exactly what Peter did, time and time again.

**THE END**

. 


End file.
